The ‘How to book the return leg with 2-4-1 companion voucher’ thread

[bennymoon]

NorthernLass wrote:

Did you try booking online or do you not have enough avios to do that?

I will need them to add the flights onto my existing booking so it’s all on one reference as I don’t have enough points to do two one-ways, and probably don’t want to do it that way even if I did.

I had to call to book the outbound as after 3 attempts at booking online at midnight the flights were gone before my payment went through.

[afghafgh]

bennymoon wrote:

Tried to call up via the US number tonight to add a return flight of my booking, got through to someone at 23:58 and they told me I was too early! I said by the time they got my booking reference and searched for the flights it would probably have ticked past midnight. I even said this wasn’t a problem when I called to book the outbound where there was a good 4/5 mins of waiting on the line and the agent said the policy had changed. Hung up and called again as I couldn’t be bothered to argue any more and then couldn’t get through. Pretty annoyed tbh.

Getting refused at 23:58 is absolutely outrageous. As you say, even discussing where you want to fly / at what time / in what class takes a few minutes. It’s complete luck of the draw with the agent and what kind of mood they happen to be in. The first time I tried to book HND flights I got through at 23:48 and was refused (annoying, but perhaps understandable). The second time I got through at about 23:51 and the agent was completely fine with it, and couldn’t have been any more helpful and accommodating…

I imagine it’s easier if you have status and call the bronze, silver or gold line. Calling the regular line it seems almost impossible to connect at the “correct” time – too early and they tell you to shove off, too late and you won’t get through before midnight…

[NorthernLass]

It’s not outrageous at all as BA are under no obligation to do this – at any point they could change the policy so that the voucher has to be used in one go (much like Virgin has just done!) so it’s a bad idea to give agents cause to complain to the higher-ups about the extra work and possibly disagreeable customers they have to deal with!

It’s well documented on this site that results depend on which agent you get and that you need to be prepared to either HUACA or make sure you have enough avios to make the booking online.

[afghafgh]

I have to respectfully disagree. You have a customer who has been loyal enough to your brand to collect a companion voucher and vast quantities of Avios, and you’re telling them that you aren’t willing to stay on the line for two minutes…Well, outrageous is the word that springs to my mind.

BA aren’t under an obligation to do any of this – to issue Avios, companion vouchers etc…but they choose to run this loyalty scheme and I don’t think it’s too much to ask that agents are by default helpful rather than obstructive. I’d be fine with the voucher only being usable in one go – it might even calm things down a bit, and we’d all be in the same boat. I take no pleasure in the ridiculous midnight booking situation!

[bennymoon]

I will try again tonight but I will check before I do anything with the agent that they are happy to keep me on the phone to do this. Bit annoying though because it’s an extra night away but I guess that’s a nice issue to have!

[NorthernLass]

afghafgh wrote:

I have to respectfully disagree. You have a customer who has been loyal enough to your brand to collect a companion voucher and vast quantities of Avios, and you’re telling them that you aren’t willing to stay on the line for two minutes…Well, outrageous is the word that springs to my mind.

BA aren’t under an obligation to do any of this – to issue Avios, companion vouchers etc…but they choose to run this loyalty scheme and I don’t think it’s too much to ask that agents are by default helpful rather than obstructive. I’d be fine with the voucher only being usable in one go – it might even calm things down a bit, and we’d all be in the same boat. I take no pleasure in the ridiculous midnight booking situation!

It’s possible to collect large numbers of avios and companion vouchers (which BA don’t issue, btw) without having any loyalty to BA – if by loyalty you mean spending money with them. You can expect and hope for whatever you want; I’m telling it as it is!

[ConcordeRoomless]

Just to add another experience! I managed to book 2 x outbound LHR-HND CW over the phone on the US line a couple of weeks ago with a CV successfully with a super helpful agent, got through about 23:45 and he was happy to wait on the line.

Tried the same approach last night to get the return and spoke to the same agent twice who wasn’t willing to stay on the line, even at 23:58. Got through again at 00:05 and there was some issue with their systems, all the HND-LHR seats long gone by the time things were back.

Going to try again tonight to speak to someone but if I get the same blanking up to midnight I’ll settle for PE online I think.

First time running this gauntlet, it does seem bizarre that this is the situation BA have ended up in for CV redemptions. Fingers crossed for tonight anyway!

[RK228]

ConcordeRoomless wrote:

Tried the same approach last night to get the return and spoke to the same agent twice who wasn’t willing to stay on the line, even at 23:58.

If you’re a little early getting through, just have a couple of questions about using the companion vouchers prepared so that you can eat up any remaining time.

These could be genuine questions that you actually need help with or, alternatively, even questions that you already know the answers to, but could represent a genuine question for booking reward seats and would keep the agent on the line until seats are released (e.g., can I use different mixes of Avios and cash? Can I start from outside the UK? Can I book open jaw itineraries? Can you check that any reward seats are available for [insert random date here]? etc.). Basically, the sorts of questions that are often asked and answered on this website would be useful to have to hand.

This is what I have done several times and haven’t had a problem with agents not holding the line. I usually call at 20 minutes before release.

[bennymoon]

bennymoon wrote:

I will try again tonight but I will check before I do anything with the agent that they are happy to keep me on the phone to do this. Bit annoying though because it’s an extra night away but I guess that’s a nice issue to have!

Can you believe I tried again and got the same agent who again flatly refused at 23:56 to go any further with me? I even asked before they went through all the security questions saying what I wanted to do and could they help me and they said no. By the time I called through again the seats had gone.

ConcordeRoomless wrote:

Tried the same approach last night to get the return and spoke to the same agent twice who wasn’t willing to stay on the line, even at 23:58. Got through again at 00:05 and there was some issue with their systems, all the HND-LHR seats long gone by the time things were back.

I am also trying for the return from HND. If I don’t get seats tonight I will likely have to cancel the whole thing as I’m already at two days more than I wanted to be in Japan and any longer and it will cause issues with time off work etc.

[CJD]

afghafgh wrote:

I have to respectfully disagree. You have a customer who has been loyal enough to your brand to collect a companion voucher and vast quantities of Avios, and you’re telling them that you aren’t willing to stay on the line for two minutes…Well, outrageous is the word that springs to my mind.

BA aren’t under an obligation to do any of this – to issue Avios, companion vouchers etc…but they choose to run this loyalty scheme and I don’t think it’s too much to ask that agents are by default helpful rather than obstructive. I’d be fine with the voucher only being usable in one go – it might even calm things down a bit, and we’d all be in the same boat. I take no pleasure in the ridiculous midnight booking situation!

Call centre agents get targeted on all manner of metrics, if they’re being strictly targeted on their average handling time then they’re not going to sit and chat for 2 minutes when that’s 2 minutes they could be helping someone else.

[NorthernLass]

With somewhere as in demand as HND you need to be prepared to be flexible – can you return home from a different airport and get a connecting flight there? Would you accept seats in a lower cabin? Can you wait a couple of months and see if your companion voucher opens up more availability (including from the regions)?

[bennymoon]

NorthernLass wrote:

With somewhere as in demand as HND you need to be prepared to be flexible – can you return home from a different airport and get a connecting flight there? Would you accept seats in a lower cabin? Can you wait a couple of months and see if your companion voucher opens up more availability (including from the regions)?

Might have to but when it’s a companion voucher booking and you only have enough Avios for the return trip for two people with the voucher, another airport may not be an option (unless I wanted to fly out of Japan to get the return journey as an open jaw from somewhere else.

CJD wrote:

Call centre agents get targeted on all manner of metrics, if they’re being strictly targeted on their average handling time then they’re not going to sit and chat for 2 minutes when that’s 2 minutes they could be helping someone else.

I get that, but as said before, I was through to someone at 23:58. By the time they would have asked me the security questions, loaded up my booking and searched for the flights I wanted, it would be 00:00. It’s not like we’d be sat there twiddling our thumbs for 5/10 minutes. If it was 23:50 I’d get it. Also those metrics probably include being nice to their customers who want to spend their money with BA. When the agent advised me to book the inbound as a one way and link the bookings together, I said I didn’t have enough Avios for that and they bluntly replied “that’s a shame”. I am fully intending to make a complaint once the booking is complete about this specific agent as their attitude stunk. I thought I was asking for something quite reasonable which other agents had done for me in the past.

Anyway, tried again last night and did get through to someone but the systems were down until 6am. Annoyingly the flight I wanted was still there and was showing as available a few mins later but I do not have enough Avios to buy it as a one-way and claim back later. In the end found a Finnair flight two days earlier before we wanted to originally come back so bought that – maybe it will be fun to try out Finnair’s no recline business class.

[NorthernLass]

That’s exactly what is suggested here re another airport, e.g. connect to HKG and return from there. If you’re calling to add the return leg anyway, it’s not going to create any more complications with the voucher booking.

Re complaining about the agent – again, I’m not sure what you think you’ll achieve by complaining that they’re not doing something that’s actually a goodwill gesture and not anything BA officially offers!

Also – you’ve got 12 months to use the “inbound” section of your voucher, so you may be able to get another trip out of it.

[bennymoon]

NorthernLass wrote:

That’s exactly what is suggested here re another airport, e.g. connect to HKG and return from there. If you’re calling to add the return leg anyway, it’s not going to create any more complications with the voucher booking.

Re complaining about the agent – again, I’m not sure what you think you’ll achieve by complaining that they’re not doing something that’s actually a goodwill gesture and not anything BA officially offers!

Also – you’ve got 12 months to use the “inbound” section of your voucher, so you may be able to get another trip out of it.

If I hadn’t got an inbound flight within two weeks of the outbound, I can’t go at all. This is due to work requirements and the amount of time off I can take. I don’t have enough points to make another trip out of it and use them separately. I’m somewhat tempted to cancel the outbound flight and the inbound I booked last night and start again and just go somewhere else and have that be it with the points collecting game – tbh, if I hadn’t already paid for half the points on a subscription and had my heart set on the trip, I probably wouldn’t bother at all as this experience has kinda put me off.

As for complaining about the agent, it’s the fact that they were so condescending and unhelpful. Regardless of what the policy is, their attitude and tone stunk and if there are call recordings I would think any manager who listened to the way this person spoke to me would agree that it was unprofessional, particularly when they said “that’s a shame” in terms of using points to book the return. It also doesn’t really line up with my past experiences of calling up to sort these things out which makes me feel like it’s an outlier to the internal expectations that BA place on their teams.

[NorthernLass]

What was the issue with them saying “that’s a shame”? It’s certainly a shame if it would otherwise have helped you make your booking.

You chose a really difficult redemption, unfortunately, and if you’ve done your research on here you’ll know that this often leads to frustration and disappointment.

If you’ve got the avios left which would have been used for your return journey, you can still use them for one leg of a future trip with the other half of your voucher, and make alternative arrangements for the outbound, as you seem to have done for this one (you said you’ve bought a Finnair flight).

[bennymoon]

NorthernLass wrote:

What was the issue with them saying “that’s a shame”? It’s certainly a shame if it would otherwise have helped you make your booking.

You chose a really difficult redemption, unfortunately, and if you’ve done your research on here you’ll know that this often leads to frustration and disappointment.

If you’ve got the avios left which would have been used for your return journey, you can still use them for one leg of a future trip with the other half of your voucher, and make alternative arrangements for the outbound, as you seem to have done for this one (you said you’ve bought a Finnair flight).

I know I’ve chosen a difficult redemption, I did this trip in 2023 and was able to book the outbound using the extra companion voucher availability and the inbound on the phone. I guess it was a different time but it was no where near as stressful as this. I’ve done plenty of research and regularly read the forums here and as I’ve had past experience doing exactly what I’ve been trying to do, it’s just disappointing that on three different occasions the agent or the system has foiled the plan.

Unfortunately I don’t think I will be able to convey the tone and manner of the agent so I think we’ll just agree to disagree on how I expect to be spoken to on the phone by a call centre person. This experience did not match up to my experience from the last time I booked the inbound flight in 2022 (for a trip in 2023), nor the booking of the outbound flight over the phone two weeks ago for a trip in 2025.

[bennymoon]

bennymoon wrote:

Unfortunately I don’t think I will be able to convey the tone and manner of the agent so I think we’ll just agree to disagree on how I expect to be spoken to on the phone by a call centre person. This experience did not match up to my experience from the last time I booked the inbound flight in 2022 (for a trip in 2023), nor the booking of the outbound flight over the phone two weeks ago for a trip in 2025.

Also an additional point, the separate call centre agents I have since spoken to have all agreed that the person who wouldn’t help me was being a little over-zealous with whatever they believed was the policy. The person I subsequently spoke to last night who couldn’t help because of systems issues said they would stay on the line if a customer came through at 23:55 or later. A separate person I spoke to on Monday also said this seemed a bit extreme and not how they would have handled it. As I said in my last post, this also didn’t match up to my own experience of this process which I’ve done at least twice before. So I don’t feel like I’m incorrect in my expectations here.

[JoanneS]

Hello, does anyone have the number for the American office to book flights as soon as reward seats become available? The PE seats I want to try for to Orlando become available tonight. I have tried reading this thread but only been able to find a partial number 1-800. TIA

[NorthernLass]

As per the reply on your separate thread, all the numbers are listed on BA.com when you log in.

[JoanneS]

NorthernLass wrote:

As per the reply on your separate thread, all the numbers are listed on BA.com when you log in.

Thank you, I’ll look there.

Just to check the best course of action.
I believe using a 2 for 1 voucher, that for the outbound flight from London to MCO I can either call or try my luck online. But for the return I need to call to add the return to the outbound flight.

[NorthernLass]

Not necessarily- all your opinions are detailed in this threads and Rob’s articles on using avios/241.

[JoanneS]

Morning,

An update on my experience. I called the number I found in Rob’s article at about 11.50 uk time, it was answered after about 5 mins. The helpful agent said I needed to call the executive club number for blue members to book, and gave it to me, it was the same as I had found in this thread ( + 1 800 452 1201) he said pick option 3, I’m not sure if option 2 would have been better. It was also answered quickly about 11.58. The agent was really helpful. Secured the 2 premium economy tickets I was after. The only slight hiccup I had was when it came to pay, I was calling on Skype and the card wouldn’t go through, I tried different Amex cards but still no luck. The agent said she would call me back (I waited anxiously for a couple of minutes) and she called on my mobile and when I entered the card details on the telephone keypad it went through first time. So I am not sure if it was to do with Skype. The only other anomaly was that she added a £30 service fee as I called them. I don’t remember paying this before when I have used a UK number and can’t remember it being mentioned on this thread.

I just wanted to thank Rob for his articles and all who contributed to this thread for their tips and experiences. Hopefully it will equally as straightforward forward when I call in 10- 12 days to book the return.

[PeteM]

JoanneS wrote:

The only slight hiccup I had was when it came to pay, I was calling on Skype and the card wouldn’t go through, I tried different Amex cards but still no luck.

Yes, Skype can be funny like that sometimes – occasionally BA’s telephone system won’t even recognise you making a selection when in the telephone tree, which is really annoying. Need to call back in those situations and normally that fixes it.

[NorthernLass]

@JoanneS, sounds like you got a really good agent there, a few people have posted up thread about agents refusing to take bookings and consequently losing the seats 😪

You would have been charged 2 x £15 telephone fee because you could have made the booking online. I always book online but if you think your seats are going to be snapped up very quickly you can gain an extra few minutes by calling.

[ZW]

Data point: I booked London to Tokyo in club using Barclays upgrade voucher for my sister for Oct 2025 a few weeks ago. I just booked the Tokyo to London return ticket online and called this morning. The difference in Avios between PE and Business was refunded immediately. However, I have enough Avios to book the return ticket online, so it may not work for others.

For those who are rejected by the phone agent because it’s a few minutes early, might be helpful just asking the agent to check a few random dates that are already available? “Oh, is the date too earlier to book? Could you check the day/week/month before to see if there are seats available?” “What about first class, are there any tickets available?” Sure, we can ask questions that might keep the agent busy for 3 minutes before the midnight bell rings.